Oral presentation? GAO will check the tape
The Defense Intelligence Agency issued a task order proposal request against an IDIQ and indicated that DIA would make an award to the vendor with the "highest technically evaluated proposal with a fair and reasonable price." The entirety of the technical proposal, however, was to be done via an oral presentation. Based on the presentations, DIA made the award to GDIT.
Two other vendors — Amentum Technology Inc. and SOS International LLC (SOSi) — protested the decision. In both cases, the protestors argued that DIA gave GDIT strengths and the protestors weaknesses that were not supported by the audio recording of the oral presentations. For example, DIA dinged SOSi for mentioning a legacy network called CENTRIXS, but GAO couldn't find any mention of CENTRIXS in the recording. Similarly, DIA gave GDIT strengths for its inclusion of "upskilling" but dinged Amentum even though it used the same phrase.
Because GAO concluded that the technical evaluation was not supported by the record, GAO sustained the protest.